«Siamo come l’amfimissi ci impasta». Gaetano Pieraccini eugenista ed eutenista

This article focuses on the figure of Gaetano Pieraccini (1864-1957), whose medical training took place in the late positivistic age. To the principles and guidelines of that culture he still remained faithful in the mid-twentieth century. Connected to this perseverance, his lasting passion for the phenomena of physical and psychological inheritance stands out, first studied in the thirteen generations of the Medici family, in search of biological laws and of data on the onset and transmission of pathologies. His eugenic search for measures to defend society is intertwined with this historical-anthropological interest. Despite Pieraccini's socialist anti-fascism, never disguised, consonances can be found with some aspects of the biopolitics practiced by the fascist regime, for example in assigning to women tasks that would derive from her alleged 'nature'. The consultation of the Pieraccini papers at the BNCF offered useful materials for writing my article.